The setbacks to being an adult are many, but somewhere between the bills, the slowing metabolisms, the day jobs and the taxes, there are a few silver linings. Take, for instance, one of the most underrated (and underutilized) abilities your childhood self could only dream of: the freedom and disposable income to stuff your face with as many pizza bagels as is biologically possible.
Roving bagel outfit Yeastie Boys is here to help those dreams grow into a tomato-topped reality, launching a multi-restaurant pizza bagel pop-up series that runs now through early November.
“I fuckin’ love pizza and I fucking love bagels,” says Yeastie Boys owner Evan Fox. “It’s all I ate as a kid.”
The simple, greasy pleasure’s been on Fox’s mind for awhile. The self-described “bagel lord" can’t make pizza bagels on his food trucks because he lacks any type of broiler to melt the cheese from above; he could use the flat-top grill, but considers that cheating and means to a lesser product. Fortunately, Fox was approached by James Starr, co-owner of Prime Pizza—which is now one of four restaurants Fox is collaborating with during his pop-up run, with a different menu at each of the four participating spots.
“Pizza bagels was the thing, you know?” Fox says. “But then [Starr and I] both got busy and I rolled into Uncle Paulie’s and the owner, Paulie [Paul James], was like, ‘Hey, we gotta do pizza bagels’ and I was like fuuuuuuuuuck. One: Hell yes. But two: There was already Prime—which I love—so I thought, ‘Let’s just do a whole thing.’”
Uncle Paulie’s is up first, running now through Sunday, October 14. The Beverly Grove-area’s modern take on an Italian-American deli is known for making its mozzarella in-house daily, and you’d better believe you can find it on each of the four Yeastie Boys collab items. The version with some heat includes sopressata, spicy marinara and mozz; the simplest iteration tops a bagel with marinara, fresh basil, the fresh cheese and olive oil; another vegetarian item adds pesto, mozzarella, basil and sungold tomatoes; and the most gourmet of all is a pile of thinly sliced prosciutto with balsamic, arugula and the house-made mozz, all at $6 or less.
Next up is Prime Pizza—most likely limited to the Little Tokyo location—where from October 14 to 25 you can drop by for a menu Fox promises will be more of a greasy, classic take on the pizza bagel. He’s still planning the items, but knows at least one option will utilize Prime’s house-made Italian sausage, and maybe a Hot Cheetos version, too.
“And I really wanted to fuck with a vegan one, and I knew Purgatory killed it at that shit,” Fox says. Purgatory Pizza, which offers around a dozen vegan options in its Boyle Heights slice shop, will be participating with an all-vegan menu from October 26 to November 2. Then, closing it all out on November 3 and 4 is Blaze Pizza, with a menu still to come.
Eventually, Fox says, he’d love to get into the freezer aisles of every 7-11 and compete with the likes of pizza-bagel gods Bagel Bites and pizza-roll legends Totino’s, but for now, he’s slowly making his way around L.A. with made-to-order takes on the classic.